Two Wild West Shows During Cody Festival

July 21, 2014

Remnants of the Wild West will be filling the streets of Jamestown on Friday and Saturday.

As part of the The International Cody Family Association Reunion there will be two Wild West shows, with one being held each day on Friday and Saturday. The shows will be performed by Tom Bishop's 4B Ranch Productions from De Winton, Alberta, Canada. The business, which was founded in 1912, performs trick roping, trick riding, knife throwing, Roman riding, whip-cracking trick horses, cowboys, cowgirls and stagecoaches. Lee Harkness, Jamestown Gateway Train Station general manager, said the shows will be somewhat limited because the group will be performing on Third and Second streets.

''They do rope spinning, knife throwing and there will be at least five horses for the show,'' Harkness said.

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Two Wild West shows will be performing during the The International Cody Family Association Reunion starting on Thursday at the Jamestown Gateway Train Station, located at 211-217 W. Second St., Jamestown. The first Wild West show will happen along Third Street on Friday between 2 and 2:30 p.m. following a discussion on the Cody’s Wild West poster. The second Wild West show will follow the Buffalo Bill Wild West Parade on Saturday in front of the train station around 10:15 a.m. Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions will be performing the Wild West shows.

Submitted photo

Tom Bishop's good old-fashioned family fun show has been seen on three continents, with performances before members of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, the World Boy Scout Jamboree and at the Gene Autry Heritage Museum in Los Angeles.

The first Wild West show will take place on Third Street between 2-2:30 p.m. on Friday. The performance will occur after a 1:30 p.m. discussion at the Reg Lenna Center For The Arts, 116 E. Third St., on Cody's Wild West show poster dating back to 1878. The poster was discovered along side a downtown building at the corner of Pine and Third streets in 2002.

The 24-by-10-foot paper billboard had been pasted to an unfinished exterior wall and was sandwiched in by brick when the building was completed in the late 1800s. The billboard, a montage of the Wild West folk hero and scenes from his show, was revealed when part of the wall fell away from the building. The billboard was then restored during a five-year process that was finished in 2007. The poster is now on display under glass at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts.

The second Wild West show will be performed following the Buffalo Bill Wild West Parade. The parade will start at 9 a.m. Saturday on the corner of Third Street and Foote Avenue. The parade will then travel through downtown Jamestown to the Jamestown Gateway Train Station, located at 211-217 W. Second St. Harkness said the Wild West show will start about 10:15 a.m.

Following the show, there will be a rifle salute to celebrate the Medal of Honor William F. Cody received. The Wild West shows will be just one part of The International Cody Family Association Reunion, which starts Thursday. Other events include special guest speakers like Jeremy Johnston, the curator of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West; an antique car show; and Western art on display at the train station. As many as 2,500 relatives of Buffalo Bill Cody have been invited to the Jamestown area for the reunion, which is held every two years. The public is welcomed to attend the events during the reunion